Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker, pictured during a press conference in February, found himself in hot water while recently delivering the commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas.
Chris Unger/Getty Images
hide title
Switch title
Chris Unger/Getty Images
Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker, pictured during a press conference in February, found himself in hot water when he recently delivered the commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas.
Chris Unger/Getty Images
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker caused controversy off the field this weekend when he told college graduates that one of the “most important titles” a woman can have is “homemaker.”
Buttke delivered a commencement address at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, denouncing abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns and the “tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion ”.
The 28-year-old, a devout Catholic and father of two, also denounced “dangerous gender ideologies” and urged men to “fight the cultural emasculation of men”. There was a time when he specifically targeted women.
“I want to speak to you directly and briefly because I think you, these women, have had the most vicious lies told to you, and how many of you are sitting here right now about to step up to the podium and are thinking about all of these things that you have done in your careers? Promotions and titles that will be received,” he said. “Some of you may go on to have successful careers in the world. But I would hazard a guess that most of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into the world.”
Harrison Butker choked up while talking about his wife, encouraging female graduates of Benedictine College to embrace motherhood. pic.twitter.com/qm73MBl0Hl
— College Fix (@CollegeFix) May 13, 2024
“I can tell you, my beautiful wife Isabelle will be the first person to say that her life truly began when she began her career as a wife and mother,” Butker said.
The 20-minute speech has been viewed more than 455,000 times on YouTube since Saturday and prompted considerable backlash and memes on social media, especially from those critical of his views on women. Many pointed out that Bartek’s mother was a clinical medical physicist.
Butker also drew the ire of fans of Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs player Travis Kelce, a relationship that has brought a number of new women to the NFL. fan. Later in the speech, he quoted Swift — though not by name — when addressing what he believed were priests’ “over-familiarity” with parishioners.
“This over-familiarity causes problems every time, because as my bandmate’s girlfriend says, ‘familiarity breeds contempt,'” he said, quoting lyrics from her song. Bejeweled.
One Swift fan account joked about petitioning the pop star to replace Butker as the Chiefs’ kicker. A real online petition calling on the Chiefs to fire Butker for his “sexist, homophobic, anti-trans, anti-abortion and racist comments” has gained 95,000 signatures since Monday and counting .
Butker and his team have yet to publicly comment on his speech and the backlash against it, although the NFL issued a statement Wednesday night distancing itself from it.
“Harrison Butker spoke in a personal capacity,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, told NPR on Thursday. “His views do not represent those of the NFL as an organization.” View.”
What else did Butker say?
Butker has been outspoken about his faith, telling Eternity in 2019 that he was raised Catholic but practiced less in high school and college before rediscovering his faith.
Last year, Butker appeared in an ad for the nonprofit Catholic Vote urging Kansans to support an (ultimately unsuccessful) referendum that would have restricted abortion rights in the state. He is also one of several athletes to partner with a Catholic prayer app. Just days after the Chiefs won this year’s Super Bowl, Butker spent a week of “reflection” at the Abbey in California.
Last year, he also gave a commencement address at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, urging students to “get married and start families.”
This time, Butker began his speech by saying that he had been reluctant to give a speech: He said he initially declined the president’s invitation because he felt a commencement address would be enough, “especially for someone who is not a professional speaker. Come on.”
He said he was persuaded in part by leadership debate over how many milestones recent graduates had missed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As a group, you have seen firsthand how bad leaders who don’t get their way can negatively impact society,” he said in his opening remarks. “It is through this lens that I want to evaluate how we get to Where we are now and where we want to be as citizens and, yes, as Catholics.”
He criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the pandemic and his stance on abortion, which he said falsely suggests one can “be Catholic and pro-life” at the same time.
Bartek blamed the emergence of procedures such as abortion, in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and euthanasia, as well as “increasing support for degenerate cultural values and the media” on the “pervasiveness of chaos”.
At one point, he cited an Associated Press article published earlier this month on the conservative Catholic resurgence that cited Benedictine College as an example.
The school, with about 2,000 students, has received top marks from the Cardinal Newman Society for policies such as offering daily Mass and banning campus speakers who “overtly oppose Catholic moral teaching.” A nonprofit organization that promotes Catholic education in the United States.
“I’m sure AP reporters couldn’t have imagined that their attempts to rebuke and shame a place and people like Benedictine would not be met with outrage, but excitement and pride,” Bartek said before issuing a statement. LGBTQ Pride Month in June.
“It’s not a mortal sin that requires a whole month of devotion,” he said, to laughter from the crowd.
How did people react?
The official YouTube video of Butker’s speech showed the crowd standing and applauding at the end, but the Associated Press reported that graduates had mixed reactions. Some told the media they were surprised by his comments about women, pastors and LGTBQ people.
Kassidy Neuner told The Associated Press that the speech felt “degrading” and suggested that only women could be homemakers.
“To point this out specifically, that’s what we’re looking for in life, seems like our four years of hard work doesn’t matter,” said Neuner, who plans to attend law school.
Butek’s comments received some support on social media, including from football fan accounts and Christian and conservative media figures.
"Christians should preach this regularly," Tweet Former NFL player TJ Moe. “Rather, it’s a taboo, and when someone says something obvious that anyone with a biblical worldview believes, it’s national news.”
Still, other public figures — including musicians Maren Morris and Flava Flav — we were quick to disagree.
Even the official Kansas City account weighed in, tweeting on Wednesday that Butker did not live there but in the neighboring suburb of Lee’s Summit. The tweet has now been deleted and the account apologized for the tweet.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said on Twitter that he believed Butker held a “minority view” in the state but defended his right to express that view.
“Adults have their own opinions, even if they are involved in sports,” he wrote. “I don’t agree with a lot of people’s views, but I recognize that we have a right to express different views.”
Judge Horn, the former president of the Kansas City LGBTQ Commission, was more scathing, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that “Harrison Butker does not represent Kansas City and never has.” He said the city “welcome , affirm and embrace members of our LGBQ+ community.”
The Los Angeles Chargers also spoofed Butker in their Sims-style schedule launch video on Wednesday, which ended with footage of his animated character wearing No. 7 in the kitchen cooking and arranging flowers.
